Google Code-In 2017

Applications for Google Code-In 2017 are now open! We - Ubuntu - are going to apply to take part!

I previously asked if we would participate in Google Code-In. We received some positive feedback and volunteers to mentor, so lets kick off our application here!

I have registered Ubuntu as an organisation with GCI. We have until Tuesday October 24th at 16:00 UTC to prepare our application. That involves updating the application metadata (I will do this) and creating a set of tasks for the students to do. I need help from mentors for this bit!

Before 24th October we need to come up with at least 25 diverse sample tasks. If we get accepted, we then have until November 28th to come up with *lots more tasks for the students. We don’t want the well to run dry for prospective students, so will need as many high quality tasks as possible.

Creating tasks

Craft some tasks for our application. Some examples to get inspiration are available. (someofthese may be familiar to you)

Create a reply under this hub topic and paste your tasks in there.

When you come up with more tasks, go back and edit your post and add them in

Feel free to have discussion under this topic, if it gets too busy we’ll split conversations out to their own topics

We also have the #ubuntu-google IRC channel on freenode for co-ordination. Feel free to lurk there too.

At the end of this process I’d expect there to be a bunch of replies underneath this topic, containing a variety of tasks covering the different categories. We need a minimum of 25 tasks to fill the application, we should aim for double that, to get great coverage across the categories and levels.

Our deadline for submitting the Google Code-In is tomorrow. In order for that to be successful, we need at least 25 sample tasks. Do you have some sample tasks we can submit? If not, I don’t think we can proceed with our submission, which would be sad.

If you can come up with 25 between you, we can submit our application.

Move mozc setup to “Utilities” section under GNOME Shell
This item is taking some space in the super overview, modify the desktop file to move it inside the Utilities section.
Skill: package build, desktop file edition

Move power statistics to “Utilities” section under GNOME Shell
This item is taking some space in the super overview, modify the desktop file to move it inside the Utilities section.
Skill: package build, desktop file edition

Move Software and update to “Utilities” section under GNOME Shell
This item is taking some space in the super overview, modify the desktop file to move it inside the Utilities section.
Skill: package build, desktop file edition

Move Startup application to “Utilities” section under GNOME Shell
This item is taking some space in the super overview, modify the desktop file to move it inside the Utilities section.
Skill: package build, desktop file edition

Move Input method to “Utilities” section under GNOME Shell
This item is taking some space in the super overview, modify the desktop file to move it inside the Utilities section.
Skill: package build, desktop file edition

GNOME Weather translations
GNOME Weather is a mix of translated and untranslatable strings, fix the javascript code and GNOME Shell integration to get them all translatabale
Skill: coding, javascript

Completing the transition documentation for transitioning between Unity and GNOME
The current page is quite sparse: https://wiki.gnome.org/UbuntuMigrationToGNOME. The content can be enhanced to ease people transitioning from 16.04 to 18.04 LTS.
Skills: writing documentation

GNOME welcoming screencast to be compressed and automated to VP9
Change in GNOME upstream production pipeline to produce VP9 videos instead of VP8 while generating them from blender (basically wining 50% of the initial size).
Skills: video generation pipeline.

Proceeding Fuzz testing of GNOME Shell, trying to stress it under Wayland.
Trying corner cases and report bug and stack traces upstream while stressing it. This can be: opening/closing applications very fast, typing a lot of keys in any prompts (GDM, password). Opening many applications and checking for robustness
/!\ This tasks can be handled by multiple students.
Skills: QA, reporting issues with stacktraces on GNOMZ bugzilla.

Add appstream metadata for popular applications
In Ubuntu (and GNOME) Software, metadata are taken from debian packages. There is a lack of screenshots and clear description in appstream for them. Find applications missing metadata and add them.
/!\ This tasks can be handled by multiple students.
Skills: writing, collaboration with Debian

I am interested in mentoring for GCI 2017 under Ubuntu. Here are the few tasks.

Install Ubuntu (Latest Version - 16.04 LTS or 17.10) on your system.
Install Ubuntu (Latest Version - 16.04 LTS or 17.10) and write a blog post on how to install Ubuntu <version/flavour> with screenshots. Documentation is available here https://help.ubuntu.com/ and the available download options are given here https://www.ubuntu.com/download
/!\ This tasks can be handled by multiple students.
Skills: Documentation

Create your first snap using Snapcraft and upload it to store.
Create your first snap using this tutorial https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/create-your-first-snap , upload it to store and then write a blog post on how you have created it with screenshots.
/!\ This tasks can be handled by multiple students.
Skills: Coding, Documentation

Write a blog post on your experience in GCI 2017 with Ubuntu.
You can also include the tasks that you have completed during GCI 2017.
/!\ This tasks can be handled by multiple students.
Skills: Documentation, Outreach/ResearchNOTE: This task should be uploaded late when last two weeks are left in the completion of program so that students can focus on completing other tasks.

This is great!! How could I, and my 13 & 15 year old, keep tabs on this? 100%, they’d like to participate as well as capitalize on what Ubuntu(Canonical) have done here. Alan, as usual, thanks so much for aligning this… additional thanks to those that have contributed!